How to clean crayfish or crawdads before cooking?!

You can wash them in plain tap water, don't let them soak in it too long, fifteen minutes is enough. The chemicals in the tap water will kill them if left too long. Examine any crawfish and throw out any with straight tails that aren't moving. IF they get too cold, they will move very slowly, so be careful. Bring a highly seasoned water to a boil, just enough to cover when you add the crawfish. Use a commercial crab/crawfish/seafood boil, follow the directions, but the true taste test is this: season the water until it is so powerful it nearly chokes you to taste it. Remember, it has to get into the crawfish, and they're secure in their shells. Bring the water to a boil with the seasonings, add the cleaned, drained crawfish, cover and return to a boil. When it returns to a boil, let it cook for about 10 minutes and turn off the heat. Let it whatever container/pot you boil 'em in sit in cold water to stop cooking, and let them soak in this water for about 30 minutes. Remember, cool them off by soaking the boiling pot in cold water. Replace the water as needed to stay cool. Soaking them allows the flavor to get in. You must add salt as well as the crab boil UNLESS you buy the granulated, jarred kind of seasoning, which is the easiest, but don't know if you can get it. Look online for Zatarain's Crab Boil or something close to that and it'll take you to a website where you can order stuff for your crawfish boil. You can also add potatoes, corn on the cob, onions, whole heads of garlic - DELICIOUS! If you do add these things, boil them before you add the crawfish and take them out before you add the 'mudbugs'. Enjoy.

50 + years living in Louisiana, boiling seafood at my dad's restaurant. To be honest, I left out a few key ingredients that make up my dad's recipe, the best in the world. But that's a secret family recipe. Yours will be good, but not as good as mine!